Business of the House — Hold Westminister Hall Debate Session in Lieu of One Cancelled for Visit by Monarch — 23 Feb 2012 at 15:45

The majority of MPs voted against holding a session of debates in Westminster Hall on the 19th of March 2012 in lieu of one cancelled for a visit by the monarch on the 20th of March 2012.

MPs were considering a motion:

• That:
• (1) there shall be no sitting in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 20 March; and
• (2) this House shall sit on Friday 23 March.

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

• Amendment (a), after ‘(1)’, insert
• ‘there shall be a sitting in Westminster Hall on Monday 19 March between half-past nine o’clock and two o’clock;

Philip Hollobone MP (Kettering, Conservative) explained the context of the motion, and the amendment, during the debate^[1]:

• Her Majesty the Queen is coming to Westminster Hall on that day [20 March] to celebrate her diamond jubilee, so it is entirely appropriate that normal sittings in Westminster Hall should be cancelled for that day. No one has any argument with that. What the Leader and Deputy Leader of the House should have proposed, however, is the rescheduling of that lost parliamentary time at some other point in the parliamentary calendar, because effectively some of our precious parliamentary air time is disappearing

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• [1] Philip Hollobone MP (Kettering, Conservative), House of Commons, 23 February 2012

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